Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Our Quest for a Round Head

Yesterday I took Paxton in for evaluation of his head shape. He has
brachycephaly, or flat head syndrome. This is pretty common now since
kids are put to sleep on their backs to prevent Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome (SIDS). Hey, flat head is better than death! The treatment
can be a helmet to help reshape the head, but it looks like that's not
recommended by the clinic we went to until 6 months (he is 4.5 mo). In
the meantime, he gave me a whole bunch of impractical advice such as
putting him on his stomach to sleep and sit and watch him during the nap
at first. Um yea, not really an option as I have a two year old (which
he didn't ask about before giving these great tips). And when I
brought up that he will not relax on his stomach and lay his head down,
rather he only cries harder and harder, his response...that I'm not
letting him cry long enough (he did not ask how long I let him cry) and
that Pax would eventually lay his head down and fall asleep. No thank
you! I'd rather not upset my child into exhaustion to have him plop his
head face first into a mattress and fall asleep. I'm pretty positive
that this guy doesn't have kids or that if he does he had very little to
do with raising them. He said some other pretty ridiculous things and
didn't ask anything about what we've already done. He had no idea he
was talking to a healthcare professional married to another healthcare professional and that I could tell what a poor job he was doing. .

So
I'm upping our already in place efforts to keep him off the back of his
head. My goal is very little use of the bouncer and swing, and trying
to limit the carseat as much as practical. When he can roll both ways
more proficiently, he will naturally start sleeping on his stomach. And
if not, that would be the appropriate time to encourage him to do so. I
use baby carriers often. We got a Bumbo, which is a special chair that
helps him sit before he can actually sit on his own. So far, Pax will
sit in it for a little bit, but Ev spends most of the day plopping in
and out of it and crawling around with it stuck to his butt. He's
obsessed with it.

My
back feels like it's about to break from carrying Pax all day. Paxton,
when you're old enough to read this, and if you have a nicely shaped
head, know that massages would be good Mother's Day presents from you.
And while I'm at it, Everett, it's pretty hard lifting your 30 lb self
into and out of the car, crib, bathtub, etc. So you can buy me massages
too. ;)